Final Fantasy IV: The Complete CollectionReview

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The ultimate Final Fantasy IV package has arrived in handheld form.

By Colin Moriarty

Final Fantasy IV held a certain mystique with me as a child. My older brother, having acquired Final Fantasy IV (or Final Fantasy II as it was known on the SNES), would sneak me into his room when everyone else went to bed so that I could watch him play through it. I was only 7 or 8 years old at the time, but I sat there completely enthralled. I couldn't wait to finally play it for myself, and not too long thereafter, I did just that.

And then I played through it again. And again. I played Final Fantasy IV via the Final Fantasy Collection, the re-release on Game Boy Advance, and the re-make on Nintendo DS. Clearly, I love Final Fantasy IV. It's the second best Final Fantasy game in the entire series (with only Final Fantasy VI besting it). Furthermore, Final Fantasy IV's focus on solid story-telling and characters helps make the more recent Final Fantasy titles -- X, XII and XIII -- look subpar, with their focus on all of the wrong things.

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So when I heard that Final Fantasy IV was getting yet another release, this time on the PSP, I was excited. Yet, I suspected that perhaps this would be one too many iterations for the classic Square RPG. But any reservations I had were quickly erased when I delved into it. Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection isn't only a re-release of Final Fantasy IV as we already know it. It also includes all of the Wii-centric episodic releases of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, as well as an all new game known as Final Fantasy IV: Interlude that ties the events of Final Fantasy IV and The After Years together.

If you're unfamiliar with Final Fantasy IV, let me catch you up. First released on the SNES back in 1991, Final Fantasy IV is a traditional console JRPG. It tells the story of a Black Knight named Cecil who, after committing heinous crimes on behalf of his king, attempts to right past wrongs. Along his journey, he meets a cast of characters that are amongst the most interesting characters in the entire Final Fantasy series. From the deceitful Dragoon Kain and the summoner Rydia to the ninja king Edge and the twin mages Porom and Palom, Final Fantasy IV's cast is among the strongest in RPG history. The fact that these characters end up on an unavoidable path to save the world simply makes them all the more likeable, even if each of them has flaws that are, at times, significant.

Praying in Mysidia.

Final Fantasy IV plays much like many traditional RPGs of the time. Gamers will control a party of up to five characters. By visiting a variety of locales, from castles and dungeons to towns and cities, you'll be able to progress through the primary story of Final Fantasy IV, while occasionally branching off to complete some random side quests and other peripheral tasks. Many locations are associated to an overarching world map that players will often travel over. And combat in the game is triggered by random encounters. Once a random encounter has trapped your party, you'll have to fight through enemies using Final Fantasy IV's turn-based-but-not-quite system known as Active Time Battle. This system puts an impetus on actively paying attention to each fight, as opposed to a more straight forward turn-based affair ala the Dragon Quest series.

While traditional and decidedly old-school, the fact that Final Fantasy IV still has an extreme draw on legions of players 20 years after its initial release is a testament to how good the game actually is. Unlike the more recent Final Fantasy titles that have run the franchise off of a cliff, Final Fantasy IV wasn't created in a time where developers could rely on things like graphics to intrigue the player. Gamers were listening to MIDIs and staring at primitive 16-bit graphics. It was the story, characters and gameplay that drew people in, and that's still very much true today, even if Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection totes upgraded (but still very dated) graphics and sound.

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What makes this re-release of Final Fantasy IV all the stronger is the extra content that's included in the overall package. The After Years takes place nearly two decades after the events of Final Fantasy IV, and deals with Ceodore, the son of Cecil and the white mage Rosa. Its episodic approach means that you'll be playing scattered events using many characters from Final Fantasy IV, as well as a slew of new playable characters, both familiar and unknown. Final Fantasy IV: Interlude, on the other hand, takes place almost directly after Final Fantasy IV, and deals with the events leading up to Ceodore's birth. Both The After Years and Interlude otherwise play identically to Final Fantasy IV itself, using familiar locations and graphical and audio assets, though The After Years throws a few curveballs at gamers, including a combat system called Band and a strength and weakness system based on the phases of the moon. Interlude is short -- a mere three hours -- but The After Years will take you a much more significant amount of time to work through.

By playing through Final Fantasy IV, Interlude and The After Years, gamers can unlock plenty of extra content, mostly in terms of a robust bestiary, musical tracks and a slew of art. But these are mere asides. You don't need an excuse to play Final Fantasy IV. Your only excuse should be that you want to play one of the best RPGs of all-time.

Clearly, Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection is the ultimate purchase for Final Fantasy IV fans. Even if you&#Array;re already experienced with the core Final Fantasy IV experience, there&#Array;s still so much to see and do here that it&#Array;ll be hard not jump back in. The After Years and Interlude certainly aren&#Array;t as strong as the primary game, but fans like me will enjoy getting to know more about the characters we love in locales we&#Array;re already familiar with, putting a little bow on the entire saga.

But there&#Array;s just as much here for gamers who are unfamiliar with Final Fantasy IV. The main game is enough of a draw, but having all of this extra content will simply give you more bang for your buck. Just be sure to play sequentially if you&#Array;re new to Final Fantasy IV, or you&#Array;ll be completely lost. If you haven&#Array;t played Final Fantasy IV, are a fan of RPGs, and don&#Array;t find yourself utterly impressed with the game, I will be surprised.

10Lasting AppealIf you love Final Fantasy IV, you’re going to get lost in the amount of content The Complete Collection contains. Expect to spend at least 60 or 70 hours seeing everything, if not more.